A kindergarten class at Pierre Elliott Trudeau has been working hard every two weeks on an extended lunch, creating puppets with Miss Jodi. This week, the class invented popsicle stick puppets letting their imaginations run wild! Once their puppets were complete, they drew accompanying habitats and performed short skits using their newly created creatures. Miss Jodi is excited to see the final puppet show with all of the puppets they have invented!

Pssst… can you spot the bee puppet in the photo to the right? How about the cheetah, fairy, ghost and monster puppets in the photos below?

With Miss Jodi’s guidance, mini-magicians have been hard at work learning different card tricks designed to impress. Every class, they learn new tricks and have time to practice them in small groups while Miss Jodi makes sure everyone is on track.

This fall, they have already learned many tricks, all of which help students practice mathematics or language arts, and sometimes both! A group of children were so excited that they created their own book to document all of the instructions for each trick so that nothing would be forgotten.

On October 15, 2018, Michelangelo International Daycare participated in the Light the Night Walk for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada. Many walked to support friends and family who are battling these horrible diseases, and others walked to remember those who lost their battle. Daycare staff and students showed their support by baking cupcakes to offer the walkers as a token of appreciation. Many families are touched by these diseases, and Michelangelo International will continue to show support as a school and community in years to come.

This year, Parkdale Elementary School Daycare’s pumpkin decorating activity was truly extraordinary! It was a chance for the students to bring their favourite characters to life in the form of a pumpkin!

With the guidance of educators and support staff, the children were encouraged to tap into their inner creativity and the results were spectacular – it goes to show that hard work and plenty of imagination can go a long way!

It was a fun day for all which left parents in awe and the children extremely proud to be able to take home their pumpkins!

This week, Gardenview budding scientists learned about static electricity through six mini experiments, all using balloons charged with static to move objects – they learned that static acts as a magnet either attracting or repelling objects.

In first experiment, the children drew objects that can fly onto small pieces of parchment paper. The children were instructed to rub their balloons on their hair or an article of clothing to charge them with static and then place the charged balloons near the parchment paper to make their objects “fly.”

In the second experiment, the children worked together to charge their balloons with static electricity and place each balloon in front of an empty aluminum can that was lying on its side. The can became attracted to the balloon and began rolling to follow it. The children rolled the balloon all around the room, taking turns controlling the can with the balloon’s static electricity.

The third experiment involved mixing salt and pepper into a pile on a table, charging a plastic spoon with static and then placing it near the salt and pepper pile. The pepper clung to the spoon while the salt remained in a pile on the table.

The fourth experiment used the static charged balloons again, but this time the children experimented with a small piece of plastic grocery bag. The static charge pushed the plastic up into the air, just like magic.

For the fifth experiment, the children created static charges with their balloons and then attempted to place two balloons next to one another. Since the static charge was strong in both balloons, it made the balloons repel each other and separate.

In the sixth and final experiment, taking turns, the children placed their statically charged balloons next to a stream of water running from a faucet. The static pulled the water stream toward the balloons.

Parkdale Budding Scientists were at it again! Today they were also magicians: they created messages that disappeared, and used science to make them reappear.

First, Miss Jodi gave everyone a piece of blank paper. In a bowl, she mixed ¼ cup of baking soda with ¼ cup of water. She prepared three other bowls so that all students could participate. Students used Q-tips as paintbrushes and the baking soda and water mixture as paint to create pictures and messages.

While the students waited for their creations to dry, Miss Jodi taught them how to invent their own secret codes by drawing a different image next to each letter of the alphabet on a blank sheet of paper. For example, the letter A could be symbolized by a heart, the letter B by a smiley face, and so on. Next, students used their secret codes to write out their names as well as different messages. Their names ended up looking like a series of pictures placed next to each other, but could be “read” by following the invented code.

As the pictures and messages dried, the papers appeared blank once again. Then came the magic! Miss Jodi passed around a cup of grape juice and paint brushes. She instructed the students to use the grape juice and paint brushes to cover the illustrations and messages they had painted with the baking soda and water mixture. Just like magic, the pictures reappeared! This is because baking soda is a base and grape juice is an acid. When you mix bases and acids together, they create chemical reactions: in the baking soda and vinegar volcanoes experiment they explode, in the C02 balloon inflation experiment they create carbon dioxide and inflate balloons and, in this case, they reveal secret messages. So neat!

Early morning science is one of the best ways to start the day. Luckily for the Parkdale B.A.S.E. Daycare children, Miss Jodi arrived with not one, but two science experiments for them to try.

First up was drawing personalized volcanoes on strips of paper, wrapping them around a cup, and making them explode into a bubbling mess! To achieve this, Miss Jodi added vinegar and red food colouring to the cup and the children added a teaspoon of baking soda to set off the eruption. Squeals and giggles resonated around the room.

The second experiment used the same ingredients but focused on a different effect. Miss Jodi poured a small amount of water and vinegar into an empty individual-sized plastic soda bottle. Using a funnel, she added two teaspoons of baking soda inside a deflated balloon. She stretched the opening of the balloon over the neck of the bottle. One by one, the children each took a turn flipping the contents of the balloon into the bottle. As the baking soda mixed with the vinegar and water, it created a bubbling chemical reaction that in turn produced carbon dioxide gas. The gas rose inside the bottle and inflated the balloon right in front of our eyes.

A wide-eyed student named Ryan exclaimed through a smile, “the reason that I love science so much is because it is full of surprises!” Science is magical!